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The horizontal loop antenna has been dismantled and I have to do all radio work now with the vertical. Although I heard a lot of “new” DX this weekend I was not able to make many contacts. It seems the propagation is a little low. I tried on various bands, but not much luck. At least 1 new DXCC has been worked finally with a bit of luck JX9JKA from Jan Mayen heard me on my second call, he was working simplex on 17m. I’ve been trying for 7O6T today on 10m for half a hour, but no luck although he had a good signal. The pile-up was still too big. I hope JX9JKA will upload his log to LOTW some day as he asks 3 USD for a direct QSL!!! I’m sorry but I’m the last one that is buying his QSL. There were some special event stations this weekend from the “mills on the air” activation, although I saw a few on the DX cluster I’ve heard no one!

A reader sent this comment on my post about Heathkit’s demise:

“It would be a limited customer base, as with all the China crap coming in
hard to compete. Also noticed that they are selling 2mt/440 ht’s and
advertising that you do not need a license!!!look for interference to
public service and emergency com, reports against amateur radio, going
to be a tough nut to crack”

I have to disagree.  First of all, some of the “crap” from China is actually pretty good, and giving the “big 3” some serious competition.  You know, there was a time, back in the early seventies when everyone referred to the influx of Japanese-manufactured electronics as crap too.  I remember this first-hand, as my interest in SW and AM DXing started in 1972.  Look where that has gone.  The Japanese are now the manufacturers of choice for our radios.  Now, I cannot say that all of these new low cost radios are good (first-hand experience with a radio from FDC backs that up for me), but the BaoFeng UV-3R has set a new bar for value in a low-cost mini HT, as well as the highly-regarded Wouxun radios.  It should be interesting as these companies evolve.  Mobile radios are just starting to trickle in now, and who knows what’s next.  Outside of radio, what about smartphones?  Where are most of them made?

I watched this same thing happen with Shortwave receivers over the last decade.  Companies like Degen, Tecsun, and Kchibo, first got into this market by being the manufacturers for labels like Grundig-Eton.  The early radios were not good, but then a funny thing happened.  The engineers listened to the public and made changes.  They adjusted the performance and feature-set of these radios based on what the users were asking for.  This is something that their predecessors never did.  Sony, Panasonic, Philips, and even Taiwan’s Sangean, rarely made changes based on the enthusiasts comments and reviews.  The result is that some of the best performing portable SW receivers for the money now come from China.  Panasonic, and Magnavox, are out of the market here.  Sony only makes one viable offering now, and Sangean continues to get mediocre reviews, after such a promising start.  I personally own a few Tecsun, and Degen radios and although the build quality is not quite as good as the Sony, it’s VERY close now.

As far as selling to the non-licensed public, that problem has always existed.  I don’t think that you were required to produce a license to buy any of the HTX radios at Radio Shack in the eighties and nineties, as well as the various commercial offerings they had.  You were told by the packaging, and again in the manuals that you were required to have a license.  Very few people at hamfests and flea markets ask for licenses before taking the cash from their potential customers.  Add to that garage sales, and classified ads, and you can see that the ability to buy un-authorized radio equipment has always been there.  Recent experience with jamming in my area led me to a small history lesson while investigating the source of the interference.  This has been going on for a VERY long time, and you’d be surprised how much of the problem is caused by licensed Hams.

Craigslist, and eBay have made this easier, yes, and I believe that the equipment being sold should at least be restricted to its intended purpose (limiting Xmit frequencies for Amateur equipment), but we will never stop the sale of equipment to the unlicensed public, just as we will never stop music and software pirating.

The biggest travesty here is the existing players not recognizing the changing market.  Kenwood’s new rig is gorgeous, but is another multi-thousand dollar rig what this hobby needs?  What the HF side of the hobby needs is a competent, basic 160-10 (or 6) transceiver that can keep the interest of a newly licensed ham going, with a target sell price UNDER $500.  50-100 watts would be ok at this price-point, with the option of adding some power later.  I honestly feel that if Kenwood, Yaesu, and Icom don’t wake up, and adjust to the changing market, they might go the way of the classic Shortwave manufacturers.

Sorry for the long editorial, but this is a sensitive subject for me.  I have only been a ham for 9 months, and with all of the obligations I have, and trying to make sure there’s something left for retirement, plunking down $1000 on a radio at the moment is out of the question.  Many of our new hams are in this same position.  Instead of having most of us stay as Technicians, it would be nice to get these new hams interested in something other than their newly acquired VHF/UHF privileges.  A General ticket is a fairly small step from Technician, and having some economical starter radios would help

Some of the kits, in my Kit Roundup post fit the bill, but most are CW kits.  The SSB kits available are usually low power.  There are a couple of examples with a bit more power, but fully assembled the price is already in the Alinco DX-SR8 range.  Having said that, the Alinco is probably the closest rig to what I’m thinking of price-wise, but seems to get rather mediocre reviews.  I guess for $519 you can’t be all that picky.

This is all my own opinion of course.  Feel free to discuss in the comments.

–Neil W2NDG

Activating IOTA NA-143 (Pelican Is.) Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club (BVARC), KK5W will be operating from radio rooms of WWII Submarine USS Cavalla and Destroyer Escort USS Stewart and two other temporary shoreside stations from Seawolf Park in Galveston, Texas. We will be operating on 10-80 meters (SSB and CW).

The club, in cooperation with the USS Cavalla and USS Stewart Historical Foundation invites all amateur radio stations to be a part of living history and commemorate the actions of these historic ships and crews. More information at http://www.bvarc.org/index.php?page=ms Special Event QSL with SASE via KK5W (QRZ.com) is available.

We are hosting a two meter net from Seawolf Park during the event on June 2nd from 1800Z to 1900Z and on June 3rd from 1500Z to 1600Z. If you don’t yet have HF privileges, this is a great way to take part. The repeater frequency is 146.94 Mhz ( – ) (PL 167.9 Hz). This repeater has wide coverage in the Houston-Galveston, Texas area and local hams are invited to participate in the VHF net.

KK5W will be making satellite QSO’s during the afternoon passes of AO-27 and FO-29 on Saturday June 2nd and hope other AMSAT members will be on the air too.

2012 is our fifth year of participation in MSWE. This year we’re coordinating our activities with other Texas museum ships in the area, the Battleship USS Texas in Laporte, Texas and the Tall Ship Elissa in Galveston. Don’t be surprised if you find them on the VHF net too.

This year more than 90 museum ships will be participating, many using their original call signs. Sponsored internationally by the Battleship New Jersey Amateur Radio Station NJ2BB, historic ship radio rooms are activated and QSO’s are invited from amateur radio stations in the United States and around the world. NJ2BB offers a certificate for stations that contact 15 or more ships and many of the individual ships offer individual QSL cards too.

The Museum Ships Weekend event recalls the actions of ships and crews from all periods of history.

Awhile back when I assembled the Amateur Radio Kit Roundup,  I listed Heathkit as a potential source, and even answered a question in the comments about their rumored return to Amateur Radio stating that I would contact someone about it.  I sent an email off asking how they were doing in this regard.  Unfortunately I never received an answer.  Here is some sad news at the ARRL explaining why (courtesy of a mention at eHam.net this morning).  I was not a ham when Heathkit was in its heyday, but knew plenty of people who were, and like most of you, I was impatiently awaiting news of their return to the hobby.  Hopefully this is not a permanent end, but only a temporary setback.

At the moment we’re very busy with building and so again no time for the radio hobby. Actually I even have no time to remove the horizontal loop antenna. I don’t care but my XYL doesn’t like the ugly wire thing around the garden. I received the confirmation for QSOs on 12m and 17m with D2AM today. Another QSL that disappears in a dark box. At least I’m showing it here on my blog ;-). So different from DX hunting I did on 11 Mtrs years ago. Those QSLs are all in showmaps placed in ringbands at order of DXCC number as used in the 11 Mtr DXing scene. I could do that for these QSLs as well if I had the same feeling with it. But I don’t…..strange.

I had a afternoon off from my job to help my carpenter here at home. Very heavy work, it has to be done. We get doors to the garden which we wished for since we came here. Now a dream does come through. When calling with my little Baofeng HT over the PI2DZL repeater when biking home I got a response from PD2VB Bram. I already wrote about him a few posts ago as I managed my first QSOs with the Baofeng with him via the CoVersity network. Bram told me he did go for the full license, actually I misunderstood as he was going the same afternoon. Today I got a e-mail from him that he got through and did pass the exams to gt his full license. Congrats if you read this Bram, another good CB buddy from long time ago has got his full license.

Last year I wrote about CQfriends, a community website for radio amateurs like for instance facebook without all the irritating advertising. It still exists and is becoming quite populair. You can now upload your logs and they start with a exciting new award program. At the moment they are busy with a voting round for award number #1. The nice thing is that this first award is going to be delivered to the winner personally not matter where he lives! A great publicity stunt I think.

I’ve been watching with some amusement as the news continues to break about the newest entry into the ham gear market…Kenwood’s TS-990S. It dovetails nicely with other big roll-outs such as Elecraft’s KX-3. As soon as the ad for the 990 appeared on the back of last month’s QST and CQ with word that a prototype would be shown at Dayton, the message boards have exploded with speculation about what kind of rig it would be, what features it would have, how much it would cost, and more. And there were the immediate negative comments, too.

“Who needs another ($4000, $5000, $10,000, $Trillion…take your pick) ham rig?”

“Why don’t they do a QRP rig instead of another (IC-7600, IC-7700, IC-7800, FT-5000, FT-9000…take your pick) clone transceiver?”

“Will it have a band scope?” “Will it have (one, two, three, sixteen…take your pick) USB ports?”  “It’s bigger than the TS-850.  I don’t want it.”  It’s smaller than the TS-850.  I don’t want it.”

There have even been many who denigrate Kenwood for their lack of marketing acumen on so many scores you would actually think those posters actually  knew anything at all about the top-secret radio. Or assume they know more about marketing ham gear than Kenwood–who has been doing it for many, many years now.

Then things really went bonkers this week with the publication of an ad on the back page of the June QST:

AmateurRadio.com is offering a free prize drawing!

With the help of our generous sponsor, KB3IFH QSL Cards, we’re holding a drawing for 500 free full-color photo QSL cards.
This is a US$75 value and open to all licensed hams worldwide.

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